Different Tactics

It's amazing how some people think jobs are created in this country.  A prominent spokesperson for a prominent politician who works and resides at a large light colored house in the capitol recently stated on position that paying people not to work will create jobs.  Perhaps you can guess the source of my skepticism?  Another favorite tactic is to harrangue businesses to go out and hire people, meanwhile create rules from thin air that makes the cost of doing the current business more costly, future costs uncertain, and spend so much borrowed money to assure that businesses must scrimp in order to pay the future tax burdens you promise.

The actuality is remarkably simple.  Businesses hire when it's good for business.  When they have a need to be met or when they want to expand capacity or to a new line of business.  With six hundred eight new rules being promulgated last month and God only knows how many more to come, many businesses are wary of expanding in the U.S.

I've spoken on this subject several times, see:  Why We Work and Part 3 of my series on Jobs and the Economy for just a small sampling of my comments on this subject.  Ok, here I go again.  Let's pretend there is a French Company that wanted to invest $20 Trillion dollars in the United States, granted they may have to go through some paperwork coming in, but would we tax their initial capital investments in the US?  Would we instantly take 35% of their money?  Of course not.  Now, let's quit pretending.  No one knows the totals, but the low estimates are around $3 trillion and the high around $11 trillion in money that belongs to Americans that is sitting overseas and being reinvested overseas.  It's going to be taxed if it comes back...so, it's not coming back.  Instead, American businesses continue to invest and expand in some overseas markets.  Many giant American companies, Exxon, Microsoft, GM, Ford, Caterpillar, IBM and the list could go on, are holding a large amount of money in offshore accounts.  They've already paid taxes on that money in the countries in which it was earned, and while the rate of growth of the money may be lesser overseas now, it's better to keep that money invested offshore than to bring it into this country and subject it to the most unreasonable tax code in the world.

Today there is word that Unions are angry with the Democratic Party for failure to pass a bill that would make it easier to unionize, what they claim will be a boon for job creation (delusional).  Meanwhile they've assaulted job producing companies in Right to Work states, sabotaged income producing infrastructure of employers in 5 northeastern states, through excessive labor costs nearly destroyed the US auto industry, and wrecked havoc in Wisc, Ohio, and Mass earlier this year in protecting public union's bargaining "rights."